CHM To PDF Converter Professional

by Theta - Software
Overview
CHM To PDF Converter is a sophisticated program that easily and fast converts CHM (Compiled Help File)
files to PDF format. It converts automatically the CHM Table of Contents to PDF Outline. It supports the usual
PDF features, including compression and 128 bit encryption.

How CHM To PDF Works

How to create a PDF project

Technical Support
For Technical support for CHM to PDF Converter you may contact Theta-Software thru e-mail at
support@theta-software.com . You may also find information of CHM To PDF bug fixes, new releases and
FAQs thru the WEB at http://www.theta-software.com.

How CHM To PDF Works

CHM To PDF is a sophisticated converter that takes the following steps to carry out the file conversion.
1. First the CHM file is decompiled to a folder defined by the user.
2. CHM Table of Contents (*.hhk) is identified and loaded into CHM To PDF Converter Outline Control. Each
TOC node targets to its original page.
3. For each HTML Topic file a virtual Print out takes place producing a number of EMF files (Enhanced Metafiles)
of a specific size, depending on the system current default printer.
4. After these initial conversions the converted files imported into the Internal PDF Editor for further editing if
necessary.
5. Finally, PDF Editor content is converted/exported to Adobe PDF File Format.
See also:
Important notes - Limitations
Requirements

Creating a PDF Project from CHM

In order to generate a PDF project from *.chm (compiled help file) you should:
1. Click "File | Generate PDF Project" menu to display the corresponding dialog.
2. Browse for the *.chm file that your project will be created from.
3. Select a folder that the decompiled files will be stored.
Notes:
The decompilation folder name CANNOT contain any spaces as decompilation is not performed. If the
selected folder does not exist then CHM To PDF creates it.
The generated files (*.emf , *.hppj, *.wpf) are stored within the decompilation folder.
4. If you want to include in your PDF project only those topics found in the Table of Contents check the
associated box from the Files group box
5. Optionally:
Press Page Options tab to set page options.
6. Finally press Generate PDF Project to create your PDF Project (*.hppj).
It is recommended:
To specify a different folder for a different project to store project files (*.emf, *.wpf, *.hppj) as topics
with the same name may exist in different CHM files. In this case, a generated metafile will replace an old
one generated from a different topic file.
To specify an empty folder for decompilation .
Do not delete the decompiled files after decompilation as CHM To PDF Converter will no longer be able
to update its project content as EMF file (*.emf) update is based on the decompiled topic files and images.
Note
CHM TO PDF Converter automatically saves the PDF project in the selected folder giving it the name of
the *.chm file with the *.hppj extension.

Page Options
Page options concern settings for the generated *.emf files and must be set BEFORE generating the PDF
Project (*.hppj).
From Page Options dialog you can set:
PDF Project page margins in centimeters or inches, can be set by changing the values of the
corresponding boxes.
Print Scale can be set from the Print Scale Track Bar. Value of 100% is the normal print scale.
Font Scale can be set from the Font Scale Track Bar. Value of 100% is the normal font scale.
URL Color and Underlined URL options are NOT working if a Style Sheet file (css) is linked to a topic.
Page Size and Orientation are determined by the current Default printer of your system. If you want to
change the page size of the created PDF change the page size of your default printer before creating your
PDF project. Different current system printer may result to slightly different results regarding margins
and fonts. See a list of acceptable printer drivers.
See also:
PDF Editor

CHM To PDF Converter Editor

PDF Editor is a canvas to edit imported emf files.
You can
Create active links by drawing a rectangle which surrounds an area that is going to work as an active link.
Then simply set the name the page on which the link area is targeted.
Draw Horizontal lines
Import images (bmp, gif, jpg, emf, wmf)
Capture and import images through the internal screen capture tool
Import html pages as emf images after internal html to emf conversion
Delete pages
Customize the PDF outline
See also:
Outline Control

Insert a Table of Contents

You can insert a Table of Contents at the beginning of the document.
This Table of Contents is based on the TOC already exists in the PDF Outline Control

In Order to Insert the TOC:

1. Press Insert | Table of Contents (at the beginning of the document) to display the corresponding
dialog.
2. Set the font, color and size for the TOC.
3. Determine if TOC will incorporate page numbers.
4. Determine is TOC will follow the PDF document numbering.
5. Press Insert.
See Also:
Page Options
Add an Index

Add an Index
You can add an Index at the end of the document.
This Index is based on the original Index of the project found in the decompiled CHM and located in the folder
where the CHM where decompiled. If no Index file (*.hhk) is present then Index addition is not performed.
In Order to add the Index:
1. Press Insert | Index (at the end of the document) to display the corresponding dialog.
2. Set the font, color and size for the Index.
3. Press Insert.
Warning:
Index entries are not assigned a page number when:
No associated page exists in the document. This can happen when you choose to include in your project only
files existing in the decompiled Table of Contents.
When the index entry item is a "See Also" one or .

See Also:
Page Options
Insert a Table of Contents

Outline Control
PDF Editor incorporates an Outline Control that is used to accommodate the Table of Contents found in the
decompiled CHM File.
The first column accommodates the Table of Contents and the second one is used to associate a PDF
Bookmark or a page, existing in current document, to a specific node.

See Also:
Inserting Bookmarks
Creating Active Links

Creating PDF Bookmarks

You can use the Outline Control to create PDF bookmarks. Each node of the outline can target to a
specific page in the document.
This is done automatically when a PDF Project is created from a CHM file.
However if you import a TOC in Outline Control or create a TOC from scratch then each node can be set to
target to a page or a bookmark. It cannot target to an external URL.
To associate a node to a page or bookmark you can select the desired node, right click and press "set target
page..." menu to choose a page or a bookmark as its target.

See Also:
Outline Control
Creating Active Links
Inserting Bookmarks

Creating Active Links

Active PDF Hyperlinks can be created within PDF Editor by Inserting or Drawing any picture or object and
especially the Hyperlink Rectangle.
In order to make internal active links
Click the Set Link Area Button
Draw a Rectangle
Assign to the rectangle object:
a target page either from the URL/PAGE box or by right clicking and press Set Target URL/PAGE to
display the corresponding dialog and choose an existing page as the link area target.
OR
the page number of the page where your link will target from the URL/PAGE box.
an existing bookmark previously created in your document
An external URL can be set with the form of:
http://www.mysite.com
https://www.mysite.com
mailto:mayname@mayserver.com etc
See Also:
Creating Bookmarks

Inserting Bookmarks
During PDF Project generation each page is given by default a name which serves as a bookmark. Also each
page can be referenced by its page number.
Apart from this the user can insert a bookmark wherever in the document. To do this:
1. Click Insert | Bookmark menu to display the corresponding dialog.
2. Give a bookmark name
3. Press OK
See Also:
Creating Active Links
Creating PDF Bookmarks

Updating Current Page

In order to update the current page simply switch to internal HTML Editor or to internal HTML Code Editor,
from View menu or from the tabs below editor, and make any change.
When you switch back to PDF Editor then the current page is updated and your PDF project is ready to be
converted to your final PDF file.
You can use an external editor to update a topic (Right Click in PDF Editor and select "Open With..." menu). If
you use an External editor to update a topic then you should refresh the PDF Editor by pressing F5 or selecting
"View | Refresh Current Page" menu.

See Also:
Creating Active Links
Outline Control

Master page
CHM To PDF Converter Master Page is a unique feature that allows editing a page which its contents appear
in all or selected pages of the document.
You can use master page to create
Navigation buttons
Headers and Footers
Page Logos
shapes
Inserted objects in master page can:
be assigned an action (they can to serve as hyperlinks)
Appear in specific pages of the document
Formatted from the drawing toolbar
Also special fields can be inserted from "Insert Field" button. You can insert
Page numbering
Number of pages
Date
Time
Page name
You can switch to Master page from View | Master Page menu or from the tab "Master page" below PDF
Editor.

Important Note
Master Page can be turned ON by pressing "Master Page OFF" button. When the master page is off then it is
not used in the final PDF conversion. However its content is saved when you save the *.hppj project.

See Also:
Drawing in CHM To PDF

Drawing in CHM To PDF

CHM To PDF Converter offers a powerful canvas to draw and manipulate custom shapes and images.
The Drawing Toolbar contains almost all buttons used to carry out the drawing functionality in CHM To PDF.

It is divided in three sections:

Draw Object

Formatting Object

Merging Topics
In CHM To PDF you can use the "Edit | Merge With Next Topic" menu to merge the current topic with the next
one.

Note
Table of contents target is automatically updated.

Warnings
This operation can take place in saved projects
This operation cannot be undone unless you Close the Project without Saving.
See Also:
Deleting Topics

Deleting Topics
In CHM To PDF you can use the "Edit | Delete Topic" menu to delete the current topic (not current page).

Warnings
This operation cannot be undone unless you close the project without saving.
See Also:
Merging Topics

PDF File General Options

Text Rendering
Using this property you can decide weather TrueType fonts should be embedded in the PDF file or not. If
fonts were not embedded in the PDF file text can be displayed wrongly if the used fonts are not installed
on the PC of the reader of the PDF file. On the other hand embedded fonts causes the PDF files to be
much larger. The size of the usual font file is 150KB! The embedding also slows the creation process
down.
Use True Type Fonts : use true type fonts but does not embed the font data.
Embed True Type Fonts : embed data of all used fonts. (You can still use ExcludedFonts to specify
certain standard fonts)
Embed Symbol True Type Fonts : embed only symbol true type fonts. (such as WingDings, etc.)
Embed Subset True Type only Used Fonts: includes only those characters which have been used and
so produces the smallest files.
Resolution
The resolution parameter changes the resolution of the generated PDF file. The default resolution of PDF
files is 72 which is a good value for text.
Outline Charset
Support for East- European, Greek, Baltic, Turkish etc char sets for the PDF outline.
Exact Text Positioning
If "Exact Text Positioning" is checked the characters will be placed at the same positions as they were in
the input metafile. Usually this is not desirable since the PDF reader is able to render in a higher quality
if it may use its intern logic to calculate the character spacing. Also if this option is checked then a bit
larger PDF File is generated.
Create PDF Outline
Check this option if you want to create a PDF Outline (Table of Contents).

See Also:
Compression
Encryption
Text rendering

Compression and Encoding

Compression
By modifying this property you can let the PDF engine compress (deflate) text. By using compression the
file will be reasonable smaller. On the other hand compression will create binary data rather than ASCII
data. While "deflate" produces the smallest files, "run-length" compression is compatible even to very
old PDF reader programs.
Encoding
If data in the PDF file is binary it can be encoded to be ASCII again. Binary data can be either
compressed text or graphics. You can select HEX encoding or ASCII95 which is more effective then HEX.

See Also:
Encryption
Text rendering
Page Options

Encryption
Currently CHM to PDF supports the 40-bit and 128 bit PDF encryption. The later also causes the PDF to use
PDF version 1.4. Check Encrypt File - to switch on encryption.
Security (40bit,128bit (Acrobat Reader 4 or later) )
You can change between:
Owner Password
The password is required to edit an encrypted PDF file. If you don't set a password here a password will
be randomly created when you enable Encryption.
User Password
This is the password which will be used to encrypt the file. If you don't provide a password the rights for
the user can be still restricted using 'Encryption'. But the user will then not be prompted for a password.
Also Check:
Enable
Enable
Enable
Enable

Printing - to allow printing the PDF file

Changing - to allow changing the PDF file
Copying - to allow copying text from the PDF file
Forms - to enable interactive elements (do not yet apply)

See Also:
Compression
Text rendering
Page Options

PDF File Size

It is important to know which PDF settings produce the smallest PDF file.

These setting are:

Compression : Deflate Text.

Fonts Mode : Use True Type Fonts.
JPEG Quality : JPEG_10 (Default value is NO_JPEG).
However JPEG_10 produces low quality rendered bitmaps.
CHM To PDF can compress bitmaps using JPEG. This will work only for true color bitmaps (24
bits/pixel).Normally JPEG_50 produces more than satisfactory results.
Note : Sometimes Default value (NO_JPEG) produces smaller PDFs than any JPEG compression.

See also:
General
Compression and Encoding
Encryption

Important Notes
Page Size is determined by the current Default printer of your system. If you want to change the page size
of the created PDF change the page size of your default printer before creating your PDF project.
Different printer drivers may give different font and table border positioning. Therefore, final PDF file is
dependent upon the default printer. A list of tested and acceptable printer drivers is:
WinFax Printer Driver

Canon MFC 6000 (Black and White)

HP 640C/642C/648C

HP2000C

Lexmark 1020 Color JetPrinter

Epson Stylus Color 600/640/660/680 etc

CHM To PDF Converter works with any Printer Driver but is recommended to choose any of the
above list. Apart from this you can experiment with any other printer driver if output is not
satisfactory.
Active hyperlinks are not created automatically but formatting is extremely close to that of the
original CHM File as a virtual print out takes place for each HTML topic file. Active Hyperlinks can be created
within PDF Editor .
In order to generate PDF's that support font color any color printer driver must be installed on your
system and set as default (there is no need to install the printer device itself).
See Also:
Requirements
Tips

Conversion Limitations
CHM To PDF Converter does not support:
Dynamic HTML (Expanded Texts, menus, popups etc.)
VBScripts and Java Scripts

Trial Version Limitations

7 Day Trial Period
Unregistered Stamp in each odd Page
Encryption PDF Options are disabled in trial version.
Created PDF File is 128bit encrypted with Print - Change - Forms and Copy functioning disabled.

Known Problems
Table cells that do not fit to a single page may lose their Top Border for the second page that the cell starts,
and so on. This border can be covered in PDF Editor with the Draw Line functioning of the program (Click
Draw Line Button and Draw a line wherever in the project canvas. (Copy - Paste functioning is available for
drawing objects and pictures)
See also:
Important Notes
Tips

Tips
1. Solving content exceeding page margins problem
Text, Large Images and Tables may exceed page size regarding the horizontal dimension. Normally you
can solve this problem when you:
Decrease the Print Scale and Increase the Font Scale (from Page Options Dialog). By this way images
will be smaller and text larger.
Change the paper size of the default printer
Change the Page Margins
2. Updating content
CHM To PDF Converter can update its content without needing to reconvert the whole CHM file.
3. Solving the table Cell Border problem
Table cells that do not fit to a single page may lose their Top Border for the second page that the cell
starts, and so on. This border can be covered in PDF Editor with the Draw Line functioning of the
program (Click Draw Line Button and Draw a line wherever in the project canvas. (Copy - Paste
functioning is available for drawing objects and pictures)
See also:
Limitations
Requirements

Requirements
A Printer Driver must be installed on your system (There is no need to install the printer device itself). If the
Printer Driver is NOT a Color one then text in generated metafiles are going to be in Black and White.
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4 or later is required to view the created PDF files
Download free Acrobat Reader from Adobe's web site.
CHM To PDF Converter runs on: Win 98/Me/2000/XP/2003
If your system is running under Win 95/NT and CHM decompilation must take place then HH.EXE (HTML
Help Engine ) must be installed on your system. Download HHUPD.EXE from Microsoft MSDN.

See Also:
Important Notes - Limitations

About PDF (Portable Document Format)

Portable Document Format (PDF) is the de facto standard for the secure and reliable distribution and
exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world, with a ten-year track record. PDF is a
universal file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document,
regardless of the application and platform used to create it. Adobe PDF files are compact and complete, and
can be shared, viewed, and printed by anyone with free Adobe Reader software
Governments and enterprises around the world have adopted PDF to streamline document management,
increase productivity, and reduce reliance on paper. For example, PDF is the standard format for the
electronic submission of drug approvals to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and for electronic
case filing in U.S. federal courts. It is also used by the governments of the United Kingdom and Germany for
electronic document exchange. Finally, the ISO's PDF/X specification is the standard file format used for the
digital distribution of advertisements for publication.
An open file format specification, PDF is available to anyone who wants to develop tools to create, view, or
manipulate PDF documents. Indeed, more than 1,800 vendors offer PDF-based solutions, ensuring that
organizations that adopt the PDF standard have a variety of tools to leverage the Portable Document Format
and to customize document processes.

For further Information: http://www.adobe.com